A report by a group of Australian and US environmental lawyers has recommended that Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef be protected by the United Nations.

The coral reef met five of the eight criteria to be declared as “in danger” by the UN World Heritage Committee, the lawyers found.

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This report contradicts a draft decision by UN conservation agency UNESCO, which recommended two weeks ago that the reef not be added to the endangered list.

Conservationists have claimed that the UN was misled.

Queensland and federal governments deceived the UN, they allege, by telling it water quality had improved — a claim based on assumptions, not substantial water testing.

“Governments have spun this narrative over the last few years that the reef has turned a corner but today that story has come down like a house of cards,” World Wildlife Fund (WWF) spokesman Nick Heath said this week.

The new report by Environmental Justice Australia and Earthjustice lawyers reviewed the same evidence as was presented to the UN, coming to the opposite conclusion.

The federal environment minister welcome the UN’s draft decision.

“The world has recognised that Australia has made huge steps in the last 12 months. More to be done, but this is a good result for the reef, it’s a good result for Australia,” Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement.

Official endangered status could hamper tourist visits to the reef.

The UNESCO draft decision called for any lack of progress to be reviewed in 2017.

-with AAP, ABC.